Dear Darwin

I have received your book for which I am much obliged & shall read it as soon as it comes to my turn but several have bespoke it before me in this house.¹ As you say you have one of your own likenesses I shall not send the one that is here—but hang it up along side one of your fathers which is also here—² You enquire after my eye & the shot in it—³ for some few years after it got there it used to give me occasionally some slight pain but eventually came to the surface where it is now & never gives me any trouble— I may say that it was frequently of much service to me in India for when I wanted a month or two’s leave of absence I could generally get it by rubbing a pinch of cayenne pepper into the eye & then showing it to the local doctor who gave me a certificate that it required the attention of an occulist who of course resided where I wished to go for the term of my leave. Many times I got leave of absence when it was all my eye—⁴

I am sorry to hear you complain of not having good health   I knew you were ailing after your voyage in the Beagle but I thought you had entirely got over that— I never trouble the Doctors I am glad to say and am thankful to be out of their hands— people tell me I ought to have the gout as my father had & my brothers have⁵—but remedy is very simple   Whenever I am the least out of sorts, in any way I take a spoonful of charcoal in half a tumbler of water—& that is sure to set me all right— you had better try it— I have prescribed it to many very poorly patients with invariable good results—some of them miraculous equal to Holloways pills⁶ &c &c

Some day when in London I will certainly take train & pay you a morning visit for you are very well within a mornings train from London. I have never made the acquaintance of your son, though I have heard of him⁷

Believe me | yours truly | A Mostyn Owen